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14 of 14 humans found the following review helpful.
Refuge from the Reich: American Airmen Report
By Benjamin C. Works
With a world war blazing around all your borders, it is not so easy to maintain your neutrality. Switzerland, a tiny republic encircled by fascist tyrannies, managed just that difficult feat for the duration of World War 2. Three circumstances worked in it is favor in achieving this policy. Switzerland had:
(1) an armed and trained populace (2) an closely impenetrable terrain in it is Alpine fortress (which covers most of the country) and (3) a strong and tested tradition of honest, and to a great extent armed, neutrality stretching back to the Middle Ages.
Switzerland's good fortune was likewise good luck for others, including 1700 American airmen, who, for the duration of the course of the war, found safe haven in Switzerland when their ships were crippled in combat and a good deal of 100,000 internees and escaped POWs from a heap of armies, as well as when it comes to 200,000 civilian refugees.
Well-armed and neutral, Switzerland still had to defend it is sovereignty and humans not just from the Nazis, but on occasion, from stray American bombers, as well, as Stephen Tanner documents in "Refuge from the Reich," his stimulating account of this chapter of the air war over Europe and American airmen's seeking sanctuary in tiny Switzerland.
Ground armies and air armadas swirled along the Swiss borders from June 1940 to May 1945. From time to time, soldiers crossed Switzerland's borders, by land and by air, to find themselves interned "for the duration." In all, over 100,000 soldiers and airmen were interned in Switzerland for the duration of the war, including approximately 1700 American aviators, largely the crews of to a great extent damaged B-17 and B-24 bombers that could not make it back to their bases in England or Italy.
The basi American airmen started out arriving in Switzerland in August 1943, as 8th and 15th Air Force started out their heavy daylight bombing campaigns over southern Germany. In 1944, as a good deal of as ten crippled aircraft might land there in a given day. Stephen Tanner tells the story of the fortunate airmen who made it safely down to Swiss soil -- and likewise tells the sadder tale of their crewmates who passed away in crashes or who fell short and ended up in German stalags.
Mr. Tanner has written a compelling narrative history, briefly tracking the evolution of the democratic Swiss Confederation from it is origins in the heart of medieval, monarchist Europe, and also describing the development of strategic air power and it is application in Europe for the duration of World War 2. He gives a running account that weaves the stories of the American aviators and the little democracy's tenacious defense of it is independence and scrupulous adhesion to the Geneva Conventions. Tanner combines a "top down" strategic overview with "bottom up" personal messages that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events of the surviving aviators very successfully.
"Refuge from the Reich" is also a very moving book . You will find the stories of the US airmen buried in the cemetery in the Swiss town of Munsingen. You will find accounts of airmen wanting back in the fight and mounting hundreds of successful (and now and again unsuccessful) escapes, oftentimes with the support of US embassy personnel and general Swiss citizens. You will find, too, tales of the notorious little camp at Wauwilermoos, under the command of the corrupt Nazi sympathizer, Captain Beguin, where discipline cases and not successful escapees similar were on occasion sent for punishment. You will find accounts of the U.S. Army Air Force's bombing of Swiss towns and cities in error -- of the bombing of Schaffhausen with 50 dead, and even of Zurich and Basel with less tragic results. Mostly you will find the humanity of the Swiss persons and the young American airmen on display, as they encounter each other in the midst of world war.
"Refuge from the Reich" does a very nice occupation of combining scheme and diplomacy with dangerous missions, highrisk landings, escapes and captures, a little espionage and intrigue, and a most illuminating portrait of a neutral persons surviving in the shadow of world war.
10 of 11 humans found the following review helpful.
U.S. airmen and the Swiss who had given them protection
By Midwest Book Review
Refuge From The Reich: American Airmen And Switzerland During World War II tells the riveting story of how U.S. airman, shot out the skies by the Germans, parachuted, crash-landed, or other than as supposed or expected escaped to Switzerland. There they came across a country where feed and heat were rationed, where each man was an armed solider subject to instant mobilization to counter the German threat. It was a small, mountainous country swarming with internees, refugees, and expatriates seeking shelter from the sure death that awaited them from the Axis powers. By the end of the war there was a firm and pervasive sense of respect amidst the U.S. airmen and the Swiss who had given them secure shelter from the Germans. Refuge From The Reich is a valued and informative contribution to the annals of World War II's European theater.
8 of 9 persons found the following review helpful.
finally, galore clarity!
By Rudy
The courage of the Swiss for the duration of World War II has never before been so totally or accurately portrayed as in Refuge from the Reich. Long viewed as a neutral, not significant footnote in WWII history, Switzerland was genuinely a important lifesaver for numerous US airmen for the duration of the conflict. Tanner uses stimulating first-hand accounts of planes falling from the sky and Swiss pilots coming to the rescue to point out that, even though neutral, Switzerland took an active share in protecting it is country and those who entered uninvited.
The crux of the book is the sequence of events leading to and from internment--a forced type of stay required of downed flyers who landed in neutral countries for the duration of the war. American flyers came down in the hundreds to survive burning wreckages, all because Switzerland was there to protect them.
Tanner manages to make the Swiss seem at once sympathetic and demanding of their interned soldiers, reminding the world that the Swiss were in a precarious circumstance that they in some manner pulled through unscathed. For the honorable depiction of Switzerland alone this book ought to be part of each WWII student's collection. Far too much of recent creative writing of recognized artisti value regarding the Swiss has focalized (wrongly) on their banking policies to grant this other role to be ignored. To know what actually happened--to recognise regarding the hardships they suffered, the simple life they espoused and pulled through by--Refuge from the Reich is a book worthy of buying. WWII buffs in frequent will love the airwar sequences too; Tanner managed to find galore veritably thrilling crash-landing stories.
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